es
Mongolia, while branches serve Shan-si, Shen-si, Kan-suh, Turkestan,
&c. By this route go the caravans bearing tea to Siberia and Russia.
Other routes are from Yun-nan to Burma and from Sze-ch'uen province to
Tibet.

The government maintains a number of courier roads, which, like the
main trade roads, keep approximately to a straight line. These courier
roads are sometimes cut in the steep sides of mountains or run through
them in tunnels. They are, in the plains, 20 to 25 ft. wide and are
occasionally paved. The chief courier roads starting from Peking go to
Sze-chu'en, Yun-nan, Kweilin (in Kwang-si), Canton and Fu-chow. Canals
are numerous, especially in the deltas of the Yangtsze and Si-kiang.

In the centre and south of China the roads are rarely more than 5 ft.
broad and wheeled traffic is seldom possible. Bridges are generally of
stone, sometimes of wood; large rivers are crossed by bridges of
boats. In the north carts drawn by ponies, mules or oxen are employed;
in the centre and south passengers travel in sedan-chairs or in
wheelbarrows, or ride on ponies. Occasionally the local authorities
employ the corvee system to dig out the bed of a canal, but as a rule
roads are left to take care of themselves.

_Posts and Telegraphs._--Every important city is now connected by
telegraph with the capital, and the service is reasonably efficient.
In 1907 there were 25,913 m. of telegraph lines. Connexion is also
established with the British lines in Burma and the Russian lines in
Siberia. The Great Northern Telegraph Company (Danish) and the Eastern
Extension Telegraph Company (British) connect Shanghai by cable with
Hong-Kong, Japan, Singapore and Europe. An imperial _postal service_
was established in 1896 under the general control of the maritime
customs.[25] By an edict of November 1906 the control of the postal
services was transferred to the Board of Communication. The Post
Office serves all the open ports, and every important city in the
interior. There were in 1910 some 4000 native post-offices, employing
15,000 persons, of whom about 200 only were foreigners. The treaty
powers however, still maintain their separate post offices at
Shanghai, and several other treaty ports for the despatch and receipt
of mails from Europe. During the years 1901-1908 mail matters
increased from ten millions to two hundred and fifty-two millions of
items; a